


The More Things Change

by OrangeBlossoms



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, Post-Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 13:05:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10831869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangeBlossoms/pseuds/OrangeBlossoms
Summary: Futaba and Ryuji build a computer.





	The More Things Change

They stood in the attic of LeBlanc when he realized that maybe they didn’t think things through. Everything had a layer of dust and it felt bittersweet to see their old hideout look so abandoned. A potted plant wilted against the wall, brown leaves scattered on the floor. Next to it the edges of an idol poster curled up at the corners. There were a few footprints in the dust that must have been from Sojiro. His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp gesture from the woman at his side.

“Ryuji! This is your job. I can’t work in this,” Futaba gestured to the floor. 

He resisted the urge to moan about it too much and settled for a more mildly irritated response, “Yeah, yeah, just get me the broom or whatever.”

Futaba had already wandered off and appeared to be inspecting the CRT TV on the table. She swiped a finger across the screen only to inspect the resulting gray smudge with a look of disgust. His request had fallen on deaf ears.

Futaba’s room was technically organized, but it wasn’t what Ryuji would call clean, not that he had much room to comment. She was attending school at a university in Tokyo, but had decided to commute to class rather than live with other students. At the suggestion that they build the computer there, Futaba had looked at him with an annoyed glare.

_“I need more space.”_

They had then decided on Akira’s old room. Their mistake was in not checking on the space before they had brought over all the components, lining them up neatly in one of the cafe booths.

With a long-suffering sigh, he marched downstairs to ask Sojiro about some cleaning supplies.

Sojiro met his arrival with a raised eyebrow.

“You kids need to bring all this stuff upstairs. It’s going to deter customers,” he stated gruffly.

In all the times Ryuji had visited, there only ever seemed to be the same handful of people lounging in booths. It didn’t seem worth the hassle to argue over it though.

“We just want to clean up the storeroom upstairs first. Futaba says it’s not good to have the parts around so much dust.” 

Sojiro indicated to a bucket and mop in the kitchen before Ryuji got a chance to ask.

“Thanks.” 

After lugging the bucket of water upstairs, mop balanced over his shoulder, he quickly noticed Futaba stretched out on the couch by the TV set, feet up in the air swinging back and forth. She had gotten the TV and old home console set up and appeared to be enjoying a round of an old railway game.

He rolled his eyes and got to work. 

Her headphones were over her ears, a strong signal to bug off, so he didn't bother with small talk. She had been in a better mood at the store in Akihabara, excitedly pointing out electronics and trying to explain why some pieces were better than others. She might as well have been speaking another language. They were on a strict budget and it seemed like she settled on a combination of refurbished parts and sale items. She had been kind enough to donate an old case to the cause, waving off his thanks. 

_“So, this’ll be good enough for word processing, some e-mail and I got a little surprise for you, too, pal,”_ she had grinned mischievously at the last part. 

In the end he had been the guy to carry things as she ducked in and out of aisles, sometimes excitedly rocking on her feet or comparing product information with what was in the store and what she found online.

_“Ugh, I’ll just use some of my old cables. What a rip-off.”_

She hadn’t seemed to notice one of the clerks walking past, shooting her an annoyed expression in response.

They had somehow made it on the subway back to Yongen-Jaya. At least some of the pieces were already in Futaba’s room. She had gone ahead and ordered a couple new peripherals and they would be reusing the monitor from his mother’s old desktop which had died a sudden death during a thunderstorm a few weeks ago. 

_“Electric surge fried the mobo. It’s dead, dead, dead,”_ she had told him after what looked like her swapping parts in and out of various machines, sometimes resulting in beeps and brief flashes of light, _“PSU is donezo, too.”_

 _“Geez… I guess I’ll have to help her get a new one. This sucks,”_ he had complained.

 _“No, wait. We got this! We’ll just build one from some of my spare parts, what we can cannibalize from this machine and a few new things,”_ she had explained, getting increasingly focused and excited over the task ahead.

_“I’ll need a budget,”_ she had told him, _“And if you’re good, I’ll show you how to put it together,”_ she offered with a happy hum. 

He had thought about it for a minute trying to figure out how much he could scrounge up before shooting her a number.

 _“Challenge accepted!”_ she remarked with a quick fist pump.

He was skeptical about the showing him how to make a computer part of the whole arrangement. Futaba didn’t seem to have the patience for people who weren’t on her level of understanding.

The moment of truth was near as he swabbed the last corner of the room. He stuck the mop back in the bucket and turned to see that Futaba was already up and laying a mat down on the floor. It was like she had selective perception of the world around her. If something interested her, she was bright and aware. If it didn’t, well, it might as well not exist.

She hopped down the steps, humming the song to a show he felt like he should recognize. 

“Yo, Ryuji!” she called from the bottom of the steps, “Come help me carry this stuff!” 

“Got it, got it,” he said, making his way downstairs.

She immediately gave him some bags and the case, piling a few things on top of it. 

“I might be doing this for free, but you’re still gonna put in some work.”

“OK, boss.”

“That’s the spirit!” she grinned.

They started placing pieces on the mat, the case in the center of it all. She unrolled a set of tools and pulled out a few other odds and ends. 

Holding up a bundle of zip ties, she looked at him with a serious expression before commenting, “Cable management.”

He nodded as if he knew what she meant. 

“Let me just open the case and we’ll get started.”

In an attempt to help, he started ripping open some of the other boxes.

"No, you idiot. You need to touch the case before you touch any of the internal pieces. It's not my problem if you need to eat cup noodles for a few weeks to save up for a new CPU."

“How was _I_ supposed to know that!”

Her only response was a withering glare.

“Wait for me to show you what to do. You need to ground yourself,” she explained slowly.

He looked at his feet as if to show he was on the ground. This time she smacked her palm against her face.

“I guess I just assumed you knew more about electricity, Skull,” she griped before taking a deep breath and calming herself, “OK. How about you just watch? I’ll explain what I’m doing for each step.” 

To his surprise, she was true to her word and she even answered questions when he didn’t understand something. It took some time and there were a couple steps where she got frustrated with his lack of knowledge, but she seemed entertained when he cheered as the LEDs lit up after they plugged it in, switched on the power supply and pressed the power button.

“Hey, Ryuji,” she said, pushing up her glasses.

“Yeah?”

“Go get us curry for dinner.” 

Still with the orders. He shook his head ruefully, grumbling, but complied. She was busy installing software when he walked back up with two plates. He decided to start playing with the old game system as she finished with the software updates and installs, quickly losing interest in watching percentages tick up. After some time, he noticed a shadow appear over his shoulder.

“I can do you one better,” she said, holding up what looked like a USB cord. She unplugged the controller from the gaming system mid-game before walking back over to the computer. 

“Tadaa! It’s all set up for emulation. I know you completed more video games than homework in high school, so I thought you might want to have something fun to do when you visit your mom. Got some old school mah jongg and koi koi if that’s more her pace, too.” 

"Is this legal?"

"I thought you were a pirate, or is that just Captain Kidd?"

She deftly opened several folders and he noticed a list of file names.

“Primal Cage Fighters? Star Cats? Sacred Emblem: Bloodlines of the Crusade? How many of these are there?” he looked at her incredulously.

“Enough for you to fail final exams for all of high school all over again,” she responded smugly. 

“Hey! I didn't fail! I still graduated, didn't I?!”

“Much to everyone's surprise. Now quit whining. Let's see if that effort paid off. I wanna know if you can even come close to my Star Cats high score.”

“I’ll destroy it! Learn some respect for your elders, kiddo! I played this on the original system! No way are you gonna beat me without hacks.”

Ryuji didn't come close to Futaba's high score, but he did win several rounds of Primal Cage Fighters with what Futaba referred to as a 'broken character with a lame play style'.

**Author's Note:**

> Vaguely related to Day In, Day Out in that it's post-game and will be very loosely tied to another WIP. Wanted to do a friendship fic. 
> 
> MirrorMystic had suggested some other post-post-post game fics. This probably wasn't what they had in mind, but it's one idea that popped in my head. (I also had an Ann/Shiho short fic idea, too, but it isn't done and am not sure where it falls in the priority list as I kinda just... make these as inspiration hits.)


End file.
